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Saving lives, one DUI arrest at a time

Local law enforcement officers from each agency who had made the most DUI arrests in 2004 were honored Friday, making for a grand total of 358 arrests among nine officers.

Wed like to say thank you to all of our officers, said Marsha Masters, president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving of Kitsap County, who hosted the annual awards ceremony. Each award winner was presented with a plaque, a portable breathalyzer test unit for their agency and a M&M candy dispenser for their work in getting the drunks off the roads.

This is the 25th anniversary of MADD, 25 years of saving lives, Masters said.

She added that 16,000 people a year die in alcohol-related crashes.

Thats 40 to 50 people a day that are still losing their lives in alcohol-related crashes, thats too many, one is too many, she said. We dont want any more victims. I kind of hope MADD can be put out of business.

Masters is a retired teacher who worked for many years at Olympic High School. One of her students was killed in an alcohol-related crash in 1984.

To deal with that empty seat was one of the hardest things I had to deal with while

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